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Orbitz data breach

The travel agency Orbitz has announced that a security breach of its systems, discovered on March 1, in which nearly 900,000 credit cards and personal information records were exposed across its customer base, has affected about 550 Stanford employees.

Stanford officials have met with Orbitz representatives to learn more about the breach and how it impacts Stanford employees. The affected Stanford population consists of those who booked travel in Orbitz for Business between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 1, 2016. Orbitz said the personal information accessed in the breach includes name, payment card information, date of birth, phone numbers, email address, physical and/or billing address and gender.

Orbitz is managing the response to this breach, and those impacted will be receiving notification from Orbitz regarding this incident via U.S. mail. The affected parties will receive free credit monitoring, identity protection and other support services that will be outlined in the notification.

This incident is a reminder of the best practices and vigilance needed in this era of pervasive cyberthreats: proactively freezing your credit, monitoring your bank account and credit card statements, reviewing your credit reports and using two-step authentication wherever available. The university also offers identity theft protection services free of charge to all benefits-eligible employees.

For more information on avoiding, detecting and handling identity theft, visit the University IT webpage on this topic.

Stanford Vice Provost and Dean of Research Kathryn Moler wants all research resources to be as readily available as books in a library. This model would enable faculty and students to pursue the most innovative research in flexible, collaborative teams.